South Carolina

In South Carolina, twenty farmers from fifteen counties will participate in South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s (SCDA) 2018 Industrial Hemp Pilot Program. Throughout the state, 131 applications were submitted for the pilot program. Participants were selected based on agriculture experience, geographic balance across South Carolina, accredited college/university partner, purpose of the crop, processor experience and the ability to secure needed equipment and financing.

Farmers in the pilot program will be working with the University of South Carolina, Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, Clemson University and USC Beaufort.

The bills are being introduced, “to improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of South Carolina patients who can benefit from alternate courses of treatment instead of pharmaceutical,” says David Newsom, head of Government Affairs for SC Compassion, a nonprofit medical cannabis group that has been working with the lawmakers to help draft the bills.

Law enforcement officers on the South Carolina coast are warning parents after they discovered a load of marijuana-infused candies during a traffic stop recently on Interstate 95, WHNS reported.

Deputies from the Florence County Sheriff's Department said the candies were infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the psychoactive chemical component of marijuana. Officers said the candies are virtually indistinguishable from brand name candies without a chemical analysis.

They said the THC-infused candies were produced in Colorado, where marijuana is legal, but that it's not legal to possessor transport these products out of the state.

According to the labels, the candy is stated to contain 100 mg of THC.

Deputies are urging parents to be aware that these products are showing up in the state and to report any suspicious candies to law enforcement.

South Carolina state senators recently voted against a bill that would have legalized medical marijuana in the Palmetto State.

Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) sponsored the bill and has been working on it for two years. The bill would have legalized the use of medical cannabis for patients with conditions such as cancer, HIV, AIDS, PTSD, and chronic pain.

"This is something that is providing real relief to people who are suffering,” he told the Senate Medical Affairs Committee Thursday.

A similar bill, sponsored by Rep. Jenny Horne (R-Summerville), is still alive in the House, giving proponents of medical marijuana hope that a law to legalize medical marijuana may still come in the near future.

In a horrific abuse of police power, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond was shot and killed in July in a Hardee's parking lot by an officer after an undercover narc lured 23-year-old Toni Morton, Hammond's date, there to sell marijuana. After Hammond was shot and killed, Morton was charged with possession of 10 grams of marijuana.

On Tuesday, three months later, local Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams announced she won't be pressing charges after "careful consideration of the facts of the case, a thorough review of the State investigation, and an extensive review of all applicable law," reports Ed Krayewski at Reason.com.

Police claim the officer, Mark Tiller, acted in "self defense," but attorneys for Hammond's family point out that an autopsy they commissioned found Hammond was shot in the back. The dash cam video of the incident, released by authorities, shows that Tiller fired at Hammond after the car was already driving away.

Attorneys also petitioned the South Carolina attorney general to remove Adams from the case, since it involved a cop within her circuit and because of other conflicts of interests. Adams refused to recuse herself, while the attorney general hasn't responded to the petition.

The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the incident to determine whether to bring federal charges. The U.S. attorney investigating asked her not to release any more information about the shooting, Adams claimed.

Medical marijuana should be legal in South Carolina, a panel of state senators concluded on Thursday.

The Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee voted unanimously to advance a bill that would legalize marijuana for certain medical conditions in the state, reports Cassie Cope at The State.

The proposal's approval sends a strong signal that legalizing medical marijuana is something the General Assembly wants to do, according to state Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), the bill's chief sponsor.

But predictably mired in the unhappy past, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel told senators he's against the proposal, which outlines proposed guidelines for licensing state growers and dispensaries.

Keel claimed the proposed seed-to-sale tracking system doesn't take into account what happens to marijuana once it's sold to a patient. He also told one whopper -- yes, the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sat there in front of the Senators and told a big old lie. He claimed more adolescents use marijuana in states that have legalized marijuana. Unfortunately for the lying chief, scientific studies have shown otherwise.

Voters in Three Early 2016 Primary States Want to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition

New polling data has revealed that voters in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina overwhelmingly support ending federal prosecutions of people acting in accordance with state marijuana laws.

Among respondents, 65 percent agree that "states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference." Just 16 percent think that "the federal government should arrest and prosecute people who are following state marijuana laws."

The survey, commissioned by Marijuana Majority, is a follow-up to other recent polls from the organization that showed supermajority support for respecting local marijuana laws in Iowa and New Hampshire, which are also key early presidential primary states.

"Regardless of whether they personally support legalization, voters in these early primary states strongly support scaling back the war on marijuana so that local laws can be enacted without federal harassment," said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority. "The Obama administration has made some helpful accommodations to let states start to move forward, but overarching federal prohibition laws still stand in the way of full and effective implementation.

"Presidential contenders in both parties would do well to make marijuana law reform a prominent issue in their campaigns, and they'd be better off doing it before other candidates realize just how much of a winning issue this is with voters," Angell said.

A mother in South Carolina is manufacturing cannabis oil, legally. The oil is high in cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive but medicinal component of marijuana that is now legal in the state under S. 839, which allows for consumable hemp products with less than .3 percent of THC.

"I'm building my company here," said Janel Ralph, reports Molly Grantham at WISTV.com. "I think it'll be up and running in maybe six months. But I'm an optimist. I guess I can't say exactly on the timeline."

Because of the controversy surrounding marijuana, Ralph is keeping her location secret.

"There will be people who would intentionally try to steal it not knowing that it's hemp," she said. "Criminals could hear I'm manufacturing medical marijuana and think they could take it.

"They wouldn't understand that what I'm making has such a low THC, that even if they took they plants they couldn't smoke it or sell it as marijuana," she said. "You can't get high on what I'm making."

Ralph started it all last year because of her five-year-old daughter, Harmony, who has a genetic condition called lissencephaly. Harmony's brain is missing one of her chromosomes, and she has lots of seizures. Multiple pharmaceuticals didn't work.

CBDpurUS.com, a supplier of pure natural CBD isolate (not a synthetic) in the United States, on Thursday announced that the medical and research community, as well as members of the public, can order CBD isolate from the company in 1 gram, 5 g, 10 g, 25 g and 50 g sizes. Delivery normally takes 72 hours.

Because this isolate is pure CBD, it is normally diluted by dissolving it in canola oil, sunflower oil, hemp seed oil, etc. The oil is heated to 155 degrees and the Pure CBD is dissolved therein.

Dosages of 10 mg to 25 mg are the most common. The individual's body naturally determines the amount of strength needed daily for relief. Thus we see 1g of CBD isolate will produce forty 25 mg doses when diluted in oil. This equates to a huge savings for patients in addition to research, manufacturing, etc.

Oregon Analytical Services has tested the CBD to be 99.8 percent pure, according to CBDpurUS.com. They suggest the oil be delivered in a eye dropper that can be obtained from any pharmacy.

The drops should be placed under the tongue and held there for maximum delivery via the sublingual, buccal, and Peroral membranes of the the body.

South Carolina state Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), author of a bill which made it legal for parents to possess the marijuana derivative cannabidiol (CBD) oil to control their children's seizures, plans to introduce another bill on January 13, the first day of the upcoming legislative session, to allow low-THC marijuana to be grown in the state. But state law enforcement has already expressed opposition to the plan.

Davis said he first heard about CBD oil from a constituent whose granddaughter in Charleston was having 80 to 90 seizures an hour, reports Steve Jones at The State. Within two weeks of his constituent's granddaughter getting CBD oil, Davis said, the seizures were reduced by 80 percent.

After researching, Sen. Davis learned that CBD oil had helped people in other states, so he introduced a bill which passed and was signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley last summer. The new law made legal the possession of CBD oil to treat children with uncontrollable epileptic seizures, as long as it was authorized by a physician.

The bill limits the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that can be in the oil (THC is the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana). It is limited by the bill to just 0.09 percent, far below what is needed to produce a high.

UsCBDpur, an importer of CBD extracted from industrial hemp and containing no THC, on Tuesday announced that they are now offering 100 gram to 1 kilo lots.

UsCBDpur says its cannabidiol is non-synthetic and represents a breakthrough in the clean extraction of CBD from thousand year old cultivars of Asian hemp (old strains bred for high fiber with little regard for any THC content).

"UsCBDpur contains no heavy metals, no THC and no residual cannabinoids/terpenes," states a prepared releasea from the company. It is simply PURE CBD, consistently testing at 99%+ pure!"

The company has what it calls "an affordable 100g entry level" beginning at $12,000. This means they are charging a stiff $120 a gram even at that volume. Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) and Full Extract Cannabis Oil (FECO) often sell for $25 to $40 a gram in the medical marijuana community -- at the single-gram level -- for comparison purposes.

"We decided to provide affordable entry levels for smaller manufacturers and formulation or consultation companies," said company director David Mouser. "If you do the math, it's a 7:1 ratio in costs.

South Carolina lawmakers earlier this year passed one of those "CBD only" bills that allow parents to possess cannabidiol oil, derived from the marijuana plant, for treatment of epileptic seizures. But CBD oil can't be legally made in South Carolina, and it's against federal law to transport it across state lines, so a new Medical Marijuana Study Committee is working out the details of how, exactly, to implement their new law.

That committee met for the first time on Wednesday at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, reports Robert Kittle at WSPA.

CBD oil doesn't have the mind-altering effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the which gets users high. As written, South Carolina's CBD-only law is just for patients in a clinical trial to treat epilepsy, and it provides no way for them to legally obtain the oil.

Janel Ralph of Myrtle Beach, whose five-year-old daughter Harmony has lissencephaly, which causes seizures, wants the law expanded so that it's not just a clinical trial and not just for epilepsy. She said the law, as written, doesn't really help.

"You're saying you can get it," she said. "You're saying you can give it to your child, and yes we're going to let you do this. But then they're not giving you any way to actually get it legally."

South Carolina voters, on a non-binding ballot question in the Democratic Primary, favored the legalizing of marijuana for medical purposes by a whopping 3-to-1 margin, 75 percent to 25 percent, in Tuesday's voting.

Since the referendum question was non-binding, the vote doesn't mean medical marijuana will become legal; it just means Democratic voters were giving direction to their lawmakers.

"Think of it as kind of a general survey," said South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison, reports John Monk at Myrtle Beach Online. "Our House Democratic Caucus wanted to get a good sense of where Democrats were on those particular issues and how to draw up that legislation."

Rep. James Smith, a Democratic legislator from Columbia, said House Democrats will come up with a medical marijuana bill next year, reports Robert Kittle at WLTX. Smith said medical marijuana was "Obviously overwhelmingly supported in the Democratic Primary, but I hear a lot from independents and Republicans who see that as something we ought to think about," Smith said.

More than 114,000 people voted on the medical marijuana question in the Democratic Primary.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Hayley on Monday signed into law a bill to allow limited access to marijuana-derived cannabidiol (CBD) oil.

Senate Bill 1035 is written to allow children with severe epilepsy-related seizures to use CBD oil, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, to quell their seizures if authorized by a doctor, reports Celeste Stiles at The Daily Chronic.

The new law establishes a clinical trial at the Medical University of South Carolina to assess the effectiveness of CBD in controlling seizures. MUSC will also be responsible for supplying all the CBD oil for the program.

It is unclear when, if ever, CBD oil will actually become available to sick kids.

The bill passed unanimously in the South Carolina Senate, and by a lopsided 92-5 vote in the House; these vote totals show what low political risk CBD bills have become, even in conservative states. CBD is politically safe because, as a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, it doesn't get anyone high, and better yet, it helps to quell seizures of the kind often found in pediatric epilepsy.

So the combination of "helping kids" and "it doesn't get you high" has proven an "in" for medical marijuana in what would otherwise have been quite forbidding places, such as the halls of power in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and now South Carolina.

The South Carolina Democratic Party will ask voters on the June primary ballot whether they support legalizing medical marijuana, in a non-binding referendum. Party leaders made the announcement to push a medical marijuana bill currently in the Legislature.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Richland), who is sponsoring a medical marijuana bill in the Legislature, said state Democrats are putting the question on the ballot so the Republicans who control the State House can see for themselves what voters think of the issue, reports Seanna Adcox at the Associated Press.

Rutherford said patients who are authorized by a physician as suffering debilitating illnesses such as cancer and glaucoma should be able to use cannabis medicinally.

"While this may be the first year we are talking about medical marijuana in South Carolina, we are lagging behind the rest of the nation," Rutherford said during a Wednesday news conference, reports Cassie Cope at The State.

The advisory question on medical marijuana is one of five asked on South Carolina's Republican and Democratic primary ballots on June 10. Two others on the Democratic ballot have to do with gambling.

Republican voters, meanwhile, will be asked about abortion and eliminating the state income tax.

The hemp industry in the United States has taken a step forward in the Carolina's as Naturally Advanced Technologies, Inc (NAT) has announced that it has signed a ten month sublease of a facility at 164 County Camp Road, Kingstree, SC, 29556.

NAT has always committed to unlocking the potential of renewable and environmentally sustainable biomass resources from hemp and other bast fibers and this decision to locate closer to the HanesBrand headquarters is no exception to their track record. The move will create a presence as the demand for organic fibers increases worldwide. NAT's positive studies at North Carolina State University with their 80% Cotton/20% Hemp blend show great promise to the development of organic fibers worldwide. (See Video)